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How to Transition Your Baby to Dairy

The Safe Way to Change Baby's Diet

By Zehna ReddonPublished 4 years ago 2 min read
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Soy-based formula is one of the many milk substitutes available for formula-fed infants.

If you have a newborn baby who is formula-fed, and you notice they are sensitive to or may be allergic to milk protein; soy-based infant formulas are one of the many substitutes available on the market. It's still important, however, to attempt to reintroduce milk protein later on, since these sensitivities can go away. But, if your baby is formula-fed, you don't want to switch directly to whole (3.25%) milk just yet. It's important to introduce gradually.

If you have a baby girl, you really don't need to worry about switching by 12 months, if at all... however, for us Boy Mom's out there, it's actually important that our sons don't consume soy after 12 months, due to elevated risks of gynecomastia (enlargement of the male breast tissue resulting in breast development).

As a first-time Mom with a 6 month-old boy I really wasn't sure how to go about this myself, so I spoke with my healthcare team, and their recommendations truly did work and are the safest for baby's growing tummy. So, if you're wondering how to transition your baby from soy-based formula (or any other dairy-free formulas on the market), here's how to do so safely!

The biggest step to safely transitioning your baby is to gradually increase your milk bottle ratio while gradually decreasing your soy bottle ratio. What this means is that, for example, if your baby drinks 6 bottles per day; you will need to increase by 1 milk bottle/decrease by 1 soy each day, for 6 days until baby is having 6 milk bottles in his day.

You DON'T want to mix the milk formula with the soy formula in the same bottle, because it can upset the stomach more.

My 6 month-old son transitioned from soy-based formula to milk-based formula in 6 days. It's important to stick to the same brand name if possible. I switched my son from GoodStart Alsoy Stage 2, to GoodStart Plus Stage 2, as follows:

Day 1: 1 GoodStart Plus:5 GoodStart Alsoy

Day 2: 2 GoodStart Plus:4 GoodStart Alsoy

Day 3: 3 GoodStart Plus:3 GoodStart Alsoy

Day 4: 4 GoodStart Plus:2 GoodStart Alsoy

Day 5: 5 GoodStart Plus:1 GoodStart Alsoy

Day 6: 6 GoodStart Plus

It is super important to monitor your baby for any changes in behaviour or symptoms such as diarrhea, fussiness, swelling, allergic reaction, etc. As long as baby is happy, smiling, eating and sleeping, all should be well. It's important to be consistent with the transition or it will be more difficult on baby too. You may notice a little more spit up than usual but this is normal.

Make sure your bottle parts are sterilized well and that you follow the mesurement instructions on the can (the scoops are never the same).

Today is day seven of my son's transition, he is fully transitioned to GoodStart Plus at under 7 months old, and he loves it! Best of luck Mommies, cheers!

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